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Agordat-class cruiser
|Class after= |Built range=1897–1900 |In commission range=1900–1923 |Total ships completed=2 |Total ships scrapped=2 }} |module2= |Ship displacement= |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship draft= |Ship propulsion=2-shafts triple-expansion engines |Ship power=8 Blechynden boilers |Ship speed= |Ship range= at |Ship complement=153–185 |Ship armament=12 × guns 2 × torpedo tubes |Ship armor=Deck: }} }} The ''Agordat class'' was a pair of small protected cruisers built by the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the late 1890s. The two ships, and , were armed with twelve guns and two torpedo tubes. They proved to be too slow and have too short a cruising radius to be of much use, so their service careers were limited. Their most significant action came during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–12, where both ships were employed in shore bombardment duties. Neither ship saw action in World War I. Coatit was converted into a minelayer in 1919 and sold for scrapping the following year, while Agordat was rearmed as a gunboat in 1921; she followed her sister to the breakers in 1923. Design The ships of the Agordat class were long between perpendiculars and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of . Agordat and Coatit displaced up to and , respectively, at full load. The ships were originally fitted with two pole masts, but the mainmast was removed in both vessels. The forecastle deck extended to the conning tower, where it stepped down to the main deck, which ran to main mast, where it was reduced to a short quarterdeck. They had a crew of between 153–185.Gardiner, p. 348 Their propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by eight Blechynden water-tube boilers. The boilers were trunked into two widely-spaced funnels on the centerline, with those on Agordat being slightly taller than those on Coatit. The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of , with Coatit being the slightly faster ship. The ships had a cruising radius of only about at a speed of . Their limited range proved to be a severe handicap when the ships entered service, since they could not easily serve on foreign stations, where the ability to cruise long distances was required. Additionally, they were only marginally faster than the contemporary battleship design, the , which limited their utility as fleet scouts.Gardiner, pp. 343, 348 Agordat and Coatit were armed with a main battery of twelve L/40 guns mounted singly.L/40 refers to the length of the gun in terms of caliber. Ten of the guns were placed in sponsons, with five on each side of the ship. The other two were in casemates in the forecastle. The ships were also equipped with two torpedo tubes. In 1919, Coatit was converted into a minelayer; this involved removing eight of the 76 mm guns and replacing them with a pair of L/40 guns. Agordat was converted into a gunboat in 1921 and she was similarly rearmed, though she retained eight of the 76 mm guns. The ships were only lightly armored, with a thick deck. Ships Service history After entering service, both ships were assigned to the main fleet, where they remained for the first several years of their careers.Garbett, p. 1069 In 1904, Coatit was assigned to Italian Eritrea in the Red Sea,"Naval Notes", p. 1429 before returning to fleet service in the Mediterranean.Brassey, pp. 76–78 Both ships saw action in the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–1912. They joined the escort for the troop convoy for an amphibious assault on Derna, Libya in late October 1911.Beehler, p. 30 They thereafter provided gunfire support to Italian troops ashore, with Agordat being transferred to Benghazi.Beehler, p. 47 In October 1912 Coatit shelled retreating Ottoman troops in Anatolia, which the commander of the French cruiser witnessed and protested as a violation of international law. Shortly thereafter, the Ottoman government agreed to surrender;Beehler, pp. 94–95 signing the Treaty of Ouchy on 18 October.Willmott, p. 170 During the First Balkan War, which broke out in the closing weeks of the Italo-Turkish War, Coatit and an international fleet was sent to safeguard foreign nationals in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, which was threatened by a Bulgarian offensive.Willmott, p. 181 Neither ship saw action during World War I, though Agordat was involved in the occupation of Constantinople following the Ottoman defeat in November 1918.Willmott, pp. 331–332 Both ships were reduced to secondary duties after the war, with Coatit being converted into a minelayer in 1919 and Agordat being reduced to a gunboat in 1921. Neither ship served for long in these new roles; Coatit was scrapped in 1920 and Agordat was sold to ship breakers in 1923. Footnotes ;Notes ;Citations References * * * * * * Agordat-class cruisers Category:Cruiser classes